The Department of Pharmaceutical Biology
The Chair of Pharmaceutical Biology is responsible for teaching and research in the fields of medicinal plants, phytochemistry, pharmaceutical biotechnology, phytotherapy, biochemistry and molecular biology. We research biological activity of medicinal plants and fungi and we are constantly developing analytical methods for the control of quality of products from medicinal plants. Current topics include: St. John’s wort, comfrey, buckwheat, pumpkin, epilobium and endophytic fungi.
We use modern techniques of pharmaceutical biotechnology and cellular biology for the research of medicinal plants and recombinant molecules, i.e. human identical proteins that are produced in bioreactors. We also employ biological combinatory libraries for screening of novel molecules with specific activity. Current topics include obesity therapy, inhibitors of cathepsins and lipase, and novel antibiotics. In the laboratory for cellular biology we research biology of cancer, transition of molecules in cells, cell to cell communication and we search new therapeutically useful molecules employing differential display, phage display, real time PCR and cellular cultures.
The Chair of Pharmaceutical Biology has established cooperation with Jozef Stefan Institute, National Institute of Biology, Institute of Microbiology and Patophysiology, Institute of Physical Biology, CPRO-DLO Institute in Wageningen, Netherlands and Department of Pharmacognosy at Mississippi University.